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Comment by galaxyLogic | Hacker News Reader

> practice of regular nude exercise together in the gym enhanced group coherence among these men

Makes sense, clothes and fashions separate us whereas nudity emphasizes our similarity. And when you are naked you can not hide weapons. You are what you are.

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I was immediately thinking there’s a reason we do exercises in special sports clothing, made from carefully chosen, light and breathable fabrics; something the ancient world hadn’t had access to. Instead, they would have to wear what I imagine to be heavy and inflexible pieces of cloth, which wouldn’t have been able to get rid of the sweat quickly.

Considering that, I’m not surprised they would exercise naked instead.

Gym(nasium) comes from greek word gymnos which translates to naked. Exercise was performed naked it seems.

and Pokemons as well I presume

Well, yes: but gymnos (like the Latin nudus) can also mean lightly clothed. I assume that the men in the gymnasium did exercise unclothed, though.

Will be there a separation because of weapon?

I'm just thinking about the egalitarian aspect. Maybe they fought each other in sports but with the same weapons. Not by the richest guy having the biggest weapons. That was the spirit I think.

Incidentally naked sports seems to be and has been big in Germany

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freik%C3%B6rperkultur

https://chrisduggleby.com/archive/update-on-german-naked-win...

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